Jane Hirshfield: Different than Your Average Western Poet

Published on January 1st, 2017 at 03:26 am

By Lilly Zoller

The nineteenth century poet, Jane Hirshfield, was born in New York City on February 24,
1954. She was raised in a privileged family in New York in which she attended school and
enjoyed reading and writing from a very young age. She was especially interested in and inspired
by English sonnets, Latin lyrical verses, Japanese poetry and Aztec, Eskimo, and ancient Indian
court poetry. She graduated high school and went on to college at Princeton University where
she earned her Bachelor of the Arts. There she studied in the East Asian Studies Program where
she crafted her major in creative writing and literary translation. In 1973, Hirshfield graduated in
Princeton’s first graduating class of women and began her writing career. After feeling that she
had not yet had enough life experience to write about, she went on to study at the San Fransisco
Zen Center where she lived as monk in a Buddhist monastery for 12 years. Her time as a monk
heavily inspired her writings and plays a very prominent role in many of her poems. This
combination of typical life experiences and a deep connection to spirituality has made
Hirshfield’s work different from that of other Western poets in the way that she tends not to be
human centered in her poetry and much of her work is political in the way that it directly
comments on current issues while having a strong feminist nature.

Most noted for her poems, essays, books, and work as a translator, Hirshfield’s writings
are typically consistent with the themes that include awareness, consciousness, perception,
ethical involvement, judgement, certainty, and the objectification of material of existence
relating to the matter of people or abstracted human nature. This can be seen in her famous
works including “The Beauty,” “Come,” “Thief,” “After,” and “Given Sugar, Given Salt.”

Hirshfield’s utilizes the method of objectifying all types of reality including even the
most personal types. She explains this through zen phrases that are in touch with her
surroundings. In “The Promise,” Hirshfield evokes emotion in form of visual imagery:

Stay, I said to my body.
It sat as a dog does,
obedient for a moment,
soon starting to tremble.
Stay, to the earth
of riverine valley meadows,
of fossiled escarpments,
of limestone and sandstone.
It looked back
(Hirshfield 10)

The connection to body and the elements of the earth create a zen mood that is common in
Hirshfield’s writings. But, this is paired with the relatable writing of a twenty-first century
western poet which makes her style extremely unique. By connecting something as complex as
the human body to the simpleness of a dog, the reader is able to clearly grasp the intended
meaning revolves around the idea that everything is ever-changing. Different than most other
traditional western poets, Hirshfield via simplistic language and zen undertones which sets her
apart from many other writers of this time. Her writing is proof that she is “an eclectic poet not
tied to any one tradition (Menard).” To many, the most legendary aspect of Hirshfield’s is her
ability to seamlessly connect a variety of different cultures, experiences, and stories into one
piece of poetry. Additionally, she is able to infuse it with rich imagery and descriptive language
to enrich her work. This impressive poetic talent sets her apart from most other poets.

Hirshfield often relies on simplicity to get her point across which is inconsistent with the
work of many other writers. Not only does she write about basic objects such as chairs, dogs, and
the snow, she writes about them using basic language and structure. She ponders the ideas on
loneliness which is represented by a chair in the poem “A Chair in the Snow” where she writes
“A chair in snow should be / like any other object whited / & rounded / and yet a chair in snow is
always sad” (Hirshfield 1). The simple and minimalistic approach Hirshfield took in order to
write this deep and powerful poem is unlike that of other poets who typically try to
overdramatize action and create deeper connections. The basicity of the work has a deep affect
on the reader which in this case drives the reader to feel empowered and noticeable even in a
time of loneliness and hardship.

In another one of her poems, Hirshfield writes “Once, it drank beer for breakfast / drifted
its feet / in a river side by side with the feet of another. / Once it pretended shyness, then grew
truly shy, / dropping its head so the hair would fall forward, / so the eyes would not be
seen.” (Hirshfield 10). Once again, Hirshfield described the simple events of daily life in using
everyday language with a zen twist. It is important to note that this style of writing is extremely
unique in the way that it discusses the ritual events in a spiritual setting. This is unique because
most other poets either discuss the complexities of spirituality and being zen or the simplicity of
the mundane occurrences of daily life. Somehow, Hirshfield blends the two in a masterful way
which creates her own genre of eclectic poetry that belongs only to her and is different than most
others.

Feminism is another topic that Hirshfield integrates into her poems while still sticking
true to her classic style of zen and simple writing. Hirshfield views feminism as “giving women
the power to live their dreams (Hirschfield).” This topic is commonly talked about in poetry but
yet again, Hirshfield does it in a differently in the way that she relates it to everyday actions. In
her poem “Tree,” the concept of feminism is related to a tree: “That great calm being / this clutter
of soup pots and books— / Already the first branch-tips brush at the window. / Softly, calmly,
immensity taps at your life.” (Given Sugar, Give Salt 102). Her points are very clear using the
zen images of a piece of nature to evoke emotion and the basic idea of a tree to give the reader
the best understanding of the situation which is unlike anything that any other poet does. Others
support her unique way of discussing feminism by saying that she “completely at ease with being
a woman. There’s nothing defensive about the range and intensity of her involvement with the
world, be it a poem in the form of a scientific assay or one about cooking breakfast or her
making available three books containing the work of early women writers. (McGrath).”

Her detailed language and vivid visual imagery is consistent through all of her writing
which gives it power and sets it apart from the work of other poets. In “What Binds Us,” she
paints pictures in the minds of the readers that connect them with her writing. She writes, “And
see how the flesh grows back / across a wound, with a great vehemence, / more strong / than the
simple, untested surface before. / There's a name for it on horses, / when it comes back darker
and raised: proud flesh, / as all flesh, / is proud of its wounds, wears them / as honors given out
after battle, / small triumphs pinned to the chest. (Hirshfield 16).” Hirshfield told the story of
resistance and standing up for rights that one believes in through imagery and everyday
language. While many poets might use imagery, none do it in the way that Hirshfield does in
which she paints clear photos in the minds of the reader.

Jane Hirshfield achieve immense success in her field by combining a series of different
experiences and influences all into one style. This seamless mixture of various sources is
exclusive to Hirshfield and sets her apart from almost all other poets. She leaves her readers
feeling empowered and ignites the want to take action through her beautiful writing.